- Driver says armed guards issued a questionable speeding citation.
- The citation lacked references to any South Carolina traffic laws.
- State guidance says most HOA speeding citations are unenforceable.
Security guards are often made the butt of jokes. They’re called mall cops and disrespected by some folks. Sometimes, those guards take their power a little too seriously, and we might have just heard of a prime example.
A person who says they drive for Amazon claims HOA security guards boxed them in and issued a speeding ticket. Whether that ticket carries any real legal weight is far from clear.
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The incident, shared on a Reddit’s legal subreddit, reportedly occurred while the driver was making deliveries inside a private residential community. According to the poster, HOA security stopped the driver after a digital speed sign allegedly clocked them at 31 mph in a 15-mph zone.
They issued a $50 ticket. The guards were armed but were not sworn law enforcement officers, and the driver described the interaction as tense and unpleasant.
Can Private Guards Issue Real Tickets?
The citation itself appears to be a private document rather than a Uniform Traffic Ticket. Notably, the driver says it contains no references to South Carolina statutes or traffic laws. That’s key because the state has a very interesting law that could come into play: the S.C. Uniform Act Regulating Traffic (UART) does allow security guards to issue traffic tickets while patrolling private roads.
That law came about in 1978, and in 2001, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office upheld that it was legally permissible, but it left some caveats. While they can legally issue the ticket, enforcing it is a whole different matter.
To enforce the ticket, several conditions must be met, including that the private roads are formally enrolled under UART, and they must also adhere to required filings, signage, and approvals through the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
Absent that enrollment, the Attorney General’s opinion states that traffic citations issued by private security officers for standard violations like speeding are likely unenforceable and “should probably be voided.”
Court Backed Or Just HOA Paper?
Even when private roads are properly enrolled, only Uniform Traffic Tickets issued under state law, not HOA policy violations, are eligible for enforcement through the court system. That’s a big point.
If the ticket wasn’t issued under state traffic law authority, there’s little that the HOA security guards can do to get it enforced. All of that said, Carscoops obtained additional information from the driver and found out that this happened on Fripp Island.
That location specifically points to UART as to how they issue citations, so it’s likely that they at least know what the law is and how they would have to act to get their tickets enforced.
We’ve reached out to members of the management there to ask about how they enforce tickets like this. We’ve also reached out to law enforcement in the area to get their take on the situation. We’ll update you here if we hear back.
